Nick Zinner Shoots and Scores

When we stopped by the Levi’s Photography Workshop on Wooster Street this week, Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner was busy with a hammer and nails, putting up photos for his exhibition that evening.

KEN MILLER: How many years’ worth of photos are in the show?

NICK ZINNER: I’d say 90% [of the exhibition] is from the last 10 years, with a sprinkling of black and white photos from the ’90s. One thousand and one photos is a lot.

MILLER: What have you learned about photography in that time?

ZINNER: My relationship to images is always in flux… Photos I think are great can turn out to be not so interesting five years later, and vice versa. I’ve learned there’s no thing as a bad photo—every one is a personal record of a time and place.

MILLER: Do you mostly tend to take pictures on tour or are you shooting all the time?

ZINNER: The majority are taken while traveling, because everything feels new and exciting initially. Taking photos is like a way to make sense of the overwhelming…

MILLER: You’ve captured some pretty insane moments in your photographs. Is it that you’re shooting all the time, or do you have a sense of when a good photo is going to happen?

ZINNER: No, I’m shooting all the time and then editing when I’m home.

MILLER: Do you tend to prefer “ugly” photos or “pretty” photos?

ZINNER: I like a combination of both.

MILLER: You’ve got a picture up here of some hyenas from your trip to Ethiopia. What’s the craziest place you’ve been?

ZINNER: Ethiopia, hands down. It makes Tokyo seem like Boston.

MILLER: Was there ever a situation where you wanted to take a photo but were too nervous?

ZINNER: Yes! I wanted to take a photo—or have my photo taken—with Tracy Morgan a few months ago, but I was totally starstruck.

MILLER: You’re in the position of having your picture taken all the time—does taking pictures yourself make this any easier or less weird?

ZINNER: No, it makes it weirder, and [it makes] me more self-conscious, because I know almost exactly what the photographer is up to.

MILLER: What is your strongest memory related to taking a photo?

ZINNER: This is always shifting, but I have a photo of a smiling raccoon peering out of a shrub. I befriended him or her in a pecan orchard outside of El Paso and we hung out together for around an hour.